A potent, heartrending story about surviving upheaval and discovering that some rescues work both ways.
In this series opener, a neglected horse becomes the lifeline an 11-year-old didn’t know she needed.
Harper is reeling: Her parents decided to divorce after she discovered her father’s affair with her best friend Cat’s mom. Now Harper and her mother have relocated to cramped quarters in rural Sommer Springs, Tennessee, next door to a riding barn that Harper initially wants little to do with. Then a starved, neglected horse is abandoned right in front of Harper, and something shifts. She names the animal Phoenix, and their mutual rescue begins. Bradley deftly weaves humor into even the darkest moments—an image of dead chickens on a clothesline becomes both absurd and laden with meaning—while never minimizing the genuine pain of divorce, betrayal, and starting over. What emerges is a compelling portrait of how life’s gifts arrive unbidden, even amid catastrophe. The barn community feels authentically diverse and welcoming: Miss Chelsea, the barn owner, is Black; Dante, Harper’s first friend, is Puerto Rican; Night, another rider at the stable, uses they/them pronouns; and Harper is presumed white. Bradley captures what divorce and infidelity steal from children—trust, stability, the sense of a coherent world—while demonstrating how connection, human and equine, can help us rebuild what’s broken. The horse care details ring true without overwhelming the emotional arc.
A potent, heartrending story about surviving upheaval and discovering that some rescues work both ways. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 3, 2026
ISBN: 9780593859865
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 12, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2026
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious.
If you made a recording to be heard by the aliens who found the iPod, what would you record?
For 11-year-old Alex Petroski, it's easy. He records everything. He records the story of how he travels to New Mexico to a rocket festival with his dog, Carl Sagan, and his rocket. He records finding out that a man with the same name and birthday as his dead father has an address in Las Vegas. He records eating at Johnny Rockets for the first time with his new friends, who are giving him a ride to find his dead father (who might not be dead!), and losing Carl Sagan in the wilds of Las Vegas, and discovering he has a half sister. He even records his own awful accident. Cheng delivers a sweet, soulful debut novel with a brilliant, refreshing structure. His characters manage to come alive through the “transcript” of Alex’s iPod recording, an odd medium that sounds like it would be confusing but really works. Taking inspiration from the Voyager Golden Record released to space in 1977, Alex, who explains he has “light brown skin,” records all the important moments of a journey that takes him from a family of two to a family of plenty.
Riveting, inspiring, and sometimes hilarious. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-18637-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dial Books
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic.
Chainani works an elaborate sea change akin to Gregory Maguire’s Wicked (1995), though he leaves the waters muddied.
Every four years, two children, one regarded as particularly nice and the other particularly nasty, are snatched from the village of Gavaldon by the shadowy School Master to attend the divided titular school. Those who survive to graduate become major or minor characters in fairy tales. When it happens to sweet, Disney princess–like Sophie and her friend Agatha, plain of features, sour of disposition and low of self-esteem, they are both horrified to discover that they’ve been dropped not where they expect but at Evil and at Good respectively. Gradually—too gradually, as the author strings out hundreds of pages of Hogwarts-style pranks, classroom mishaps and competitions both academic and romantic—it becomes clear that the placement wasn’t a mistake at all. Growing into their true natures amid revelations and marked physical changes, the two spark escalating rivalry between the wings of the school. This leads up to a vicious climactic fight that sees Good and Evil repeatedly switching sides. At this point, readers are likely to feel suddenly left behind, as, thanks to summary deus ex machina resolutions, everything turns out swell(ish).
Rich and strange (and kitted out with an eye-catching cover), but stronger in the set pieces than the internal logic. (Fantasy. 11-13)Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-06-210489-2
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 12, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
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